


First Rule of Magic

by defyaugury



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Dark!Dipper, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:58:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7024681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defyaugury/pseuds/defyaugury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dipper happens upon a cursed medallion in the woods, Bill ends up forced to give him a crash course in magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Rule of Magic

Bill had been quietly looking over and verifying Dipper’s research on demons in his room when the door suddenly burst open with a bang, practically startling him out of his chair.

“Bill!” Mabel shouted, looking very panicked and frazzle-looking as she stood in the doorway.

“Shooting Star!” Bill yelped back in surprise.

“I need your help.”

“Help? Help with what?” Bill paused, shaking his head. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Why do you look like that? What the hell happened?”

“Oh!” Mabel said, straightening up as she started to hastily straighten her hair with her fingers, feigning nonchalant-ness. “Well, that’s actually a pretty funny story,” she said, laughing nervously. “You see the thing is, Dipper and I were exploring through the woods when we found this really cool looking temple. You should see it sometime, it was all creepy-looking with all this moss and these spider webs—”

“Shooting Star,” Bill said slowly, suspicion evident in his voice.

“And so we decided to have a look inside,” Mabel said, ignoring him. She continued, talking a mile a minute. “And what do ya know? We find this crazy looking medallion with these giant gems—which were very pretty by the way—but it also had this really weird writing on it and now that I think about it, the writing might have been a warning, but neither of us read ancient aztec so how was I supposed to know what it was? And it didn’t look like it could do any harm—”

“Shooting Star!” Bill said, finally getting her attention.

Mabel’s mouth snapped shut on her last words, no doubt de-railing whatever speech locomotive that had been speeding through her head.

“ _What happened?_ ” Bill demanded.

Mabel winced. “Weeeeeeeeeeeell,” she said. “I maybe sort of might of kind of convinced Dipper to put the medallion on and things sort of went crazy and weird and now he’s possessed by some sort of curse that turned him into a homicidal maniac and is heading back to the Shack right now to try and kill us,” she said, letting it all out in one breath. She gasped for air after before letting out a sigh. “Well,” she said. “It doesn’t sound too bad when you say it out loud.”

“You _what_!?” Bill said, this time managing to actually fall from his seat.

It was then that the sound of banging could be heard from the Mystery Shack’s front entrance. Bill and Mabel starred at each other, neither sure of what to do. After a moment, the banging stopped, only to be replaced by the sound of something scratching against the door.

“Oh, Bill.”

Bill could feel the hairs on the back of his neck at the sound of Dipper’s voice, singing his name through the door. Bill knew immediately that something was very very wrong, like there was something horrific laying hidden in Dipper’s tone.

“Bill,” Dipper sang again. “Mabel. Little pigs, little pigs, let me in.”

Mabel squeaked, her hands flying to her mouth. “Bill,” she whispered. “What do we do?”

The scratching sound suddenly stopped, followed by nothing but utter silence. Mabel’s eyes grew wide with horror. Out of nowhere, something slammed into one of the Shack’s windows, the sound of shattering glass sounding like a bomb in the silence. Mabel shrieked.

Bill had scrambled to his feet in the next second. He took Mabel by her shoulders and spun her around, trading places with her in the doorway.

“Stay in here, okay?” he said, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “I’m going to fix this. Just stay here and whatever you do, _do not open this door_.”

Mabel nodded her head mutely, her eyes wide and her hands shaking.

“Good girl,” Bill said. With one last squeeze of her shoulders, he slipped through the bedroom door and closed it. He heard the reassuring click of the lock being turned from the other side. Without much more than a sigh, Bill turned away from the door and tip-toed down the hallway.

Bill snuck through the Shack, trying to keep as quiet as possible, checking every corner and straining his ears. Every small sound, every seemingly empty room, it all sent his heart racing as chills ran down his spine. Sure, technically Bill was still immortal, but dying in this body would still hurt. Not to mention, he had no idea what Dipper or his sister had found in that abandoned temple. Whatever it was, it sounded like old magic, would could not be good. With each empty room Bill found, his heart leapt a little higher into his throat.

_Where in the Hell is Pine Tree?_

It was only when he came to the kitchen that he found the broken window. Glass lay shattered on the floor as the sill barred its jagged crystal teeth. Bill took a cautious step forward, peering out the window, only to find nothing. With careful fingers, he delicately pulled a shard of broken glass from the sill to inspect it, doing his best to avoid the lethal edges.

He was still studying the shard when he heard the sound of glass crunching underfoot behind him. Without thinking, he dropped to the floor.

The knife barely missed Bill as it sung through the air, the swing of Dipper’s arm carrying enough momentum to send him staggering forward. Bill quickly scrambled out of the way over wooden floorboards and broken glass, his shard still clutched in his grasp.

He’d barely made it to his feet and spun around before he was slammed against the wall by Dipper’s forearm pressed into his throat. Dipper raised his other arm and Bill managed to catch a glimpse of silver flashing in the kitchen light. He brought his hand up just in time, seizing Dipper’s wrist before the knife was plunged straight into his heart. There were a few strained moments of struggling, Bill desperate to keep Dipper’s wrist suspended as Dipper tried his best to force it forward, the most sadistic grin slashed across his face as he pinned Bill in place.

“Hello, Bill,” Dipper hissed, his face close enough for his words to fan over Bill’s face. “I just dropped by to see my dear, dear sister.” Dipper’s grin grew until his face was barely more than glinting eyes and barred teeth. “Seen her around lately?”

Bill gritted his teeth, his head growing faint with lack of oxygen as Dipper’s arm dug into his windpipe. For a split second, his eyes fell to the medallion hanging from Dipper’s neck, an old and dented silver artifact encrusted with massive jewels, just like Mabel had said. There was no doubt about it, this was very old magic. Bill looked back up, the hand holding Dipper’s wrist beginning to shake, and he could see the knife sinking ever lower.

“Can’t say I have,” he rasped out before bringing his other hand up with the glass shard still clasped in his fist. It sunk into Dipper’s forearm, slicing open his jacket and skin, blood spilling everywhere.

With a hiss of pain, Dipper dropped the knife, the arm on Bill’s throat loosing its pressure. Taking his split second opportunity, Bill ducked, slipping out of Dipper’s grasp completely. Tucking his head, Bill charged forward, taking Dipper around the middle before flipping him over his back.

Dipper landed with a grunt on his back, his face screwed up with pain. Bill stood over him, panting heavily as Dipper lay incapacitated on the floor.

“Pine Tree, listen to me,” he said between gasps of air. “I know you’re still in there, and I need you to hear me. Whatever’s happening to you right now, you need to know you’re still in control—”

Before Bill could even finish his sentence, Dipper’s eyes flew open, taking him by surprise. In the next second, Dipper’s hand shot out and grabbed a shard of glass from the floor, leaping to his feet before swinging at Bill again. Bill leapt back at the last second, the tip of the shard merely cutting a long gash in the front of his favorite shirt.

“He’s not here, you sorry excuse for a corn chip,” Dipper spat. “I’m the new Pine Tree now, triangle boy. ”

“ _Triangle boy?_ ”

Dipper lunged for Bill again, who was too slow to avoid the attack, the shard flashing as it cut deep into his shoulder this time. Bill hissed and grabbed his gaping wound, blood seeping between his fingers. Normally, he’d find the pain hilarious, but now was not the time. Looking up, Bill’s eye caught sight of the exposed medallion laying on Dipper’s chest and he darted for it, his hand wrapping around the cold metal before he felt the agonizing burn of a protective curse. Bill yelped and quickly let go of the medallion, his hand already pealing with second degree burns.

In his moment of distraction, Dipper took advantage and lunged at him again. Bill managed to duck just in time, the shard slicing through air as he made his move. Darting his arm out, Bill’s fist sunk into Dipper’s unprotected belly, causing him to double over with a grunt of pain. With a flick of his wrist, Bill had knocked the shard of glass out of Dipper’s loosened grip. Grabbing fist fulls of his shirt, Bill seized Dipper and forced his back against the wall, their roles form before now reversed.

“Get ahold of yourself, Pine Tree!” Bill screamed, slamming Dipper against the wall. “You’re better than this!”

“Oh, you have no chance, demon,” Dipper said, grinning through his black eye and split lip. “The kid’s gone. All that’s left is me and you, and soon not even you—”

“Shut up,“ Bill said before yanking Dipper forward and crushing their lips together.

There was a moment of resistance from Dipper before he stopped struggling, melting into Bill’s kiss for a slight moment before collapsing completely.

* * *

Dipper woke in a haze to find himself on the living room couch, his face and back aching something awful. He put a hand to his pounding head, only to find his hand had been heavily bandaged. Dipper blinked, trying to clear the fog from his head and his vision. Looking up, he could see as a figure materialized, sitting on the armrest of the couch at his feet and looking down on him.

"Bill?” Dipper asked, his voice horse. He winced as a sharp pain shot through his skull. “What the hell happened?”

Bill cracked a smile, his eyes lighting up when he saw Dipper was awake.

“Nice to see you alive and well, kid,” he said. “Do you remember anything?”

Dipper squeezed his eyes shut and dug the heals of his hands into them, doing his best to think through the haze. “I…I remember the temple in the woods, the medallion, Mabel—oh my God,” he said, his head snapping up. “I tried to kill Mabel. I tried to kill _you_.”

“No you didn’t, Pine Tree,” Bill said, shaking his head. “That was all the curse. Had nothing to do with you.”

“Mabel,” Dipper said, looking up at Bill. “Is she—? I didn’t—”

“Shooting Star’s fine, kid,” Bill reassured. “She’s out getting you medicine and she’ll be back soon.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Dipper said. “What happened? How’d you manage to snap me out of it?”

Bill let out a sigh. “First rule of magic, kid. When it comes to curses, that true love’s kiss bullshit works almost eighty percent of the time.”

Dipper stared up at him in disbelief.

“In a bit, I’ll teach you some protective wardings so this doesn’t happen again,” Bill said. “But until then, you need to rest.”

And with that, Bill leaned forward and dropped a kiss to the top of Dipper’s head before turning and leaving. Dipper watched him go, sitting in stunned silence.

_Did he just say…true love’s kiss?_


End file.
